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Friday, October 30, 2009

Obama's Alternative To Guantanamo

A U.N. human rights investigator warned the United States Tuesday that its use of unmanned warplanes to carry out targeted executions may violate international law. ...[Philip] Alston, the U.N. Human Rights Council's investigator on extrajudicial, summary and arbitrary executions, raised the issue of U.S. Predator drones in a report to the General Assembly's human rights committee and at a news conference afterwards, saying he has become increasingly concerned at the dramatic increase in their use, especially in Afghanistan and Pakistan, since June.He said the U.S. response -- that the Geneva-based council and the General Assembly have no role in relation to killings during an armed conflict -- "is simply untenable." "That would remove the great majority of issues that come before these bodies right now," Alston said. "The onus is really on the government of the United States to reveal more about the ways in which it makes sure that arbitrary executions, extrajudicial executions are not, in fact, being carried out through the use of these weapons." ..."Otherwise, you have the really problematic bottom line -- which is that the Central Intelligence Agency is running a program which is killing significant numbers of people, and there is absolutely no accountability in terms of the relevant international laws," he said. Will the Nobel Peace Prize decision be rescinded? Will President Obama, Vice-President Biden and Secretary of State Clinton be threatened with indictment for war crimes in the International Criminal Court at the Hague? Will bumper stickers stating, "Impeach War Criminal Obama" begin appearing in Seattle, Berkeley and Ann Arbor? Will the Cubs ever appear in another World Series?